State · 1841 – 1997
British Hong Kong
A state of 1841 – 1997 — 156 years in East and Southeast Asia. It was followed by Hong Kong. The atlas records 45 things within it — wars and battles 1 · unrest and atrocity 1 · people 43. Its line of rulers holds 44 people, 32 with dated terms.
For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.
- Stood
- 156 years
- 1841 – 1997
- Rulers
- 44
- the Governor of Hong Kong
- Within it
- 45
- recorded rows
- Symbols
- 4
- on record, with years
Where it sits in time
Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold, what it replaced or followed and what replaced or followed it in grey.
Before and after
The states the record files it as replacing or following, and those that replaced or followed it - Wikidata's own statements, each read from this state's side.
After it
- Hong Kong · followed by · 1841
Rulers
The line of Governor of Hong Kong.
| Ruler | Reign | Length | How it ended · source | To the ruler before |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Robert Johnston | 1841 – 1842 | 1 year | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Henry Pottinger | 1841 – 1844 | 3 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| John Francis Davis | 1844 – 1848 | 4 years | resigned or stood down, the article saysread from the ruler's own article | |
| George Bonham | 1848 – 1854 | 6 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| John Bowring | 1854 – 1859 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead | 1859 – 1865 | 6 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Richard Graves MacDonnell | 1866 – 1872 | 6 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Arthur Kennedy | 1872 – 1877 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| John Pope Hennessy | 1877 – 1883 | 6 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| George Bowen | 1883 – 1887 | 4 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| William Des Vœux | 1887 – 1891 | 4 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| William Robinson | 1891 – 1898 | 7 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Henry Arthur Blake | 1898 – 1903 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Matthew Nathan | 1904 – 1907 | 3 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Frederick Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard | 1907 – 1912 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Francis Henry May | 1912 – 1919 | 7 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Edward Stubbs | 1919 – 1925 | 6 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Cecil Clementi | 1925 – 1930 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| William Peel | 1930 – 1935 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Andrew Caldecott | 1935 – 1937 | 2 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Geoffry Northcote | 1937 – 1941 | 4 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Mark Aitchison Young | 1941 – 1941 | under a year | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Rensuke Isogai | 1942 – 1944 | 2 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Hisakazu Tanaka | 1945 – 1945 | under a year | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Cecil Harcourt | 1945 – 1946 | 1 year | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Mark Aitchison Young | 1946 – 1947 | 1 year | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Alexander Grantham | 1947 – 1958 | 11 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Robin Black | 1958 – 1964 | 6 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| David Trench | 1964 – 1971 | 7 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Murray MacLehose | 1971 – 1982 | 11 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Edward Youde | 1982 – 1986 | 4 years | died in office of natural causesWikidata's manner of death | |
| David Wilson | 1987 – 1992 | 5 years | ending not on record | |
| Chris Patten | 1992 – 1997 | 5 years | ending not on record |
44 rulers, 32 with terms dated as terms, covering 1841 – 1997. Median reign 5 years. 1 of 32 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. The violent-handover count is withheld: power changed hands so often that any rising falls beside one (exposure 0.95, limit 0.6). A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.
Flags and arms, in order
Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.
.svg/120px-Flag_of_Hong_Kong_(1876%E2%80%931955).svg.png)
flag, 1871 – 1910Flag of Hong Kong (1876–1955) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sodacan .svg/120px-Flag_of_Hong_Kong_(1871%E2%80%931876).svg.png)
flag, 1871 – 1876Flag of Hong Kong (1871–1876) · Public domain .svg/120px-Coat_of_arms_of_Hong_Kong_(1959%E2%80%931997).svg.png)
coat of arms, 1959 – 1997Coat of arms of Hong Kong (1959–1997) · Public domain .svg/120px-Flag_of_Hong_Kong_(1959%E2%80%931997).svg.png)
flag, 1959 – 1997Flag of Hong Kong (1959–1997) · Public domain
What happened within it, by century
Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.
1800 – 189930 rows
- Frederick Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard · ruler · 1858 – 1945
- Takashi Sakai · ruler · 1887 – 1946
- George Bowen · ruler · 1821 – 1899
- Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead · ruler · 1824 – 1897
- Mark Aitchison Young · ruler · 1886 – 1974
- Rensuke Isogai · ruler · 1886 – 1967
- Henry Arthur Blake · ruler · 1840 – 1918
- Matthew Nathan · ruler · 1862 – 1939
and 22 more in the atlas.
1900 – 199911 rows · 1 wars and battles · 1 risings, regime changes and massacres
- Chris Patten · ruler · 1944 – present
- Donald Tsang · politician · 1944 – present
- Japanese occupation of Hong Kong · battle · 1941 – 1945
- David Wilson · ruler · 1935 – present
- Murray MacLehose · ruler · 1917 – 2000
- 1967 Hong Kong riots · unrest · 1967
- Yuen Kwok-yung · scientist · 1956 – present
- David Trench · ruler · 1915 – 1988
and 3 more in the atlas.
Among all states
Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.
- How long it stood156 years
stood longer than 56% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.
- Wars recorded per centurynone
had more wars on record per century than 44% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.
- How long a reign lasted, at the median5 years
had longer reigns, at the median, than 18% of 967 states whose dated line can carry a median.
- Rulers on record44
has more rulers on record than 97% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.
Theories that apply to its ending
Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending and 1 some of them; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.
Dynastic cycle and the decay of group feeling
Ibn Khaldun 1377 · Turchin & Nefedov 2009
Applies by its own logic: the condition it names held here, and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — adverse regime change or the state's ending.
- the state 90 to 160 years old — ageBand 156
Open in the atlas
- On the timeline, 1825 – 2013, with everything that stood beside it.
- On the map in 1919, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
- Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.
Wikidata Q1054923 (CC0) · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.